Jiu-Jitsu is Back! The moment many had been waiting for, a glimmer of hope in the sea of desperation that has been the world of sports, and the world of workers in general over the past couple of months in the USA and Europe due to the coronavirus pandemic the globe has experienced.
In a time of crisis such as this, we need to adapt to the new “normal”, and this is what Seth Daniels, the founder, and owner of the Fight 2 Win promotion, has done. Daniels will be hosting two (2) events this weekend, with high-class match-ups such as Roberto Cyborg vs Vinicius Trator or Johnny Tama vs Ethan Crelinsten. To celebrate the good news we reached out to Daniels to learn more about the return to action in a brief interview. So without further ado.
BJJH: How hard has it been for you to be sidelined for this past month, and how hard has it been on the business?
SD: Being sidelined has been pretty brutal for me and my team. We went from working 100 hours a week for 5 years to doing nothing. The uncertainty of not knowing what was going to happen not only to our business but everyone’s health and wellness was and is very depressing but we can’t just sit by and watch our life’s work fall apart without a fight.
BJJH: Why did you choose to do two F2Ws in one weekend?
SD: We have to limit the number of people to our staff, venue staff, and a max of 24 fighters with no coaches. There are a lot of people looking to fight and we can only do 12 matches per night we normally do over 40. We have to do back to back to mitigate the costs of the event. It is cheaper per event if we do two. Things like travel, venue fees, are all cheaper for 2 days instead of one. So if an event costs $20k for 1 day but $30k for 2 days it brings down the costs per event to 15k per day. We have had to figure out ways to keep our costs as low as possible which included cutting staff, cutting pay, everything.
BJJH: Have you ever done this before with F2W?
SD: We did F2W-24 in LA and then F2W-25 in Phoenix the next night and that was brutal this won’t be as hard cause both events are in the same venue
BJJH: How difficult was it to find a venue in Dallas for the big show?
SD: Our existing venue was very easy to work with
BJJH: Are there any restrictions you will have to follow, imposed by Texas?
SD: The rules set forth by Texas are that we can only have 25% of the occupancy of the room. My venue is only allowing 50 people total in the room.
BJJH: How hard was it to put these cards together, and what were the biggest hurdles you had to overcome?
SD: These first two cards were difficult. A lot of people have not been training because they didn’t think we were coming back. The following ones will not be as difficult
BJJH. What type of safety measures will F2W take to prevent any virus spread at the show?
SD: This is what we will be doing:
– Everyone in the room will be wearing a mask
– 6 foot distance when possible
– Sanitizer will be provided to all
– We will clean the mat after each match
– We will have Dr checks pre-fight if any symptoms are flagged, the athlete will not be allowed to compete
– Temperature checks for everyone. No one with a fever will be allowed in.
